Last weekend a teenager pulled into the opposite lane of traffic on a charity ride in order to pass a pack of people, and he was struck by a car and died. Yesterday near Woodinville, WA a very experienced lifelong cyclist and racer passed a pack and met the same fate.
Every rider has to take responsibility for their actions, to be sure. I do get frustrated by huge packs of what I will call "social" cyclists who often don't as much as move an inch to the right despite all the calls of "on your left!".
I know that we must all share the roads - with motorists as well as other cyclists, and that we need to ride safe. At the same time, I really wish the pack riders would 1) stay to the right and ride no more than two abreast, and 2) take the phucking earbuds out of their ear holes. At times I really feel like there are just so many people on the roads who are really paying so little attention that I can't help feel anything but frustration when I encounter and pass them. Is this a trend in other areas?

Ear buds seem to lower a riders IQ by 25 points. I was on a ride a few weeks ago and some duffas was in the middle of the road impeding traffic-- several of us were yelling at him to move right but the music drown us out. I wanted to ride past and yank the thing out of his ear.

Racing last week in the rain loads of guys drifted over the yellow in the corners. Had an official been there to observe 1/2 the field would have been DQ'd.

we have a few pack rides and clubs here in Santa Fe, I am 1st of all so put off by their arrogance, and then their lack of respect for traffic, and other cyclists, I was passing one of these clubs one day, and just said "C'mon guys, how about riding two abreast?" and I was told to "F&$% Off" by this group on the trails here, some of the groups can be a bit much, and the arrogance can be just as bad at times Dale, I would the number is more like 50 to 75% on the IQ reduction of these folks